Pages

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

I must apologize to all my fellow bloggers. I am still trying to catch up on reading blogs, as well as posting on my own. I am finally back to work, although it is limited. I am back in the office again, but I have less hours. then again it seems that everyone has fewer hours. We are told not to worry, as soon as the holidays are over, we will all be very busy.

For the past three weeks I have been going to doctors appointments and have been cleared by Dr. Tani to be able to go back to work for light duty and to get rid of the sling. There is no cast, just a titanium rod and screws to hold the bone together. It is tiring with the therapy and exercises, but I need to use it. He has prescribed Out Patient Therapy 2 or 3 times a week for 4 weeks. Even though I know the types of exercises to do, I need to have my progress monitored. The hard part is finding rides to get there. I still haven’t found a car and Dr. Tani has said that I can drive, but I still don’t think that I can drive a 5 speed yet, so I’m still searching.

Being back at work has been good. it’s better to be around others, especially around the Holidays. I have also been going to the Saturday night dances, if only for the music and fellowship. There is a Solo’s group that meets on Monday afternoons and then go out to dinner. I’ve been once and it was enjoyable. we’ll start up again after the Holidays. I have also been cleared to swim.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

It has been two weeks since the big TRIP. I’m doing as well as can be expected. I will see Doctor Tani on Friday and I am hoping to get released for light duty. I can only do passive exercises for now, but maybe he will let me do more.

To catch up on what I’ve been doing, I am trying to be a bit active. Sometimes it is difficult. I try to walk up to the clubhouse most days. There is usually something going on. Saturday and Sunday each of my daughter took turns taking me shopping for Thanksgiving dinner.

The Saturday after I fell, fellow bloggers, Sandy and Jim, invited me to go out for dinner and to attend a Neil Diamond Tribute.

That’s their friend Rod on the left, then Jim, Sandy and me at the Texas Roadhouse. The dinner, company and show was great. A big, belated THANK YOU to Sandy, Jim and Rod too.

Here’s a picture of some shufflers on the Shuffle Board Court that I took while waiting for the Post Office to open.

For the Holiday I reserved a room in the clubhouse for our family dinner.

There were eleven of us. We had all the traditional dishes as well as few new ones that I tried, corn soufflé, candied carrots with balsamic vinegar, and roasted Brussell sprouts and red grapes. Every one liked them all and I sent all the leftovers home with whomever wanted them. A great time was had by all, even though we missed having Sandi, Mary, Charlie (in Ft. Worth) and Ted (in San Francisco).

Later in the week my brother, Don and SIL, Pat came over for a visit. They will be here in AZ for the winter.

This is their first year as snowbirds. Their home is in Sitka AK. Don’s daughter, Pam and son, Dan, both live here in Valley. I’m sure that we will see more of each other while here.

I think that I will close for now. It has taken quite a while to write this post, one keystroke at time, so please forgive the length of time between posts.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that the rest of the Holidays are happy as well.

Friday, November 22, 2013

I finished the week and had uneventful weekend, On Monday I worked 7 hours setting up tables and chairs, decorating the tables for the monthly Birthday Luncheon with lots of balloons.

The special tables were for the Young A Heart Club, those that are 90 or older.

In the afternoon I took Angel dog park.

There were too many dogs and was happy when we left.

We still had to take down tables and chairs from the luncheon and set them up for Coffee and Donut for Tuesday morning.

Then there was Tuesday!!!!!!!! I was on my way to the clubhouse and -------------------------

Yep,” I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”, I tripped on some uneven pavement and fell with enough force on my left shoulder to separate the long part of the bone from the round part of the bone, Fortunately it was only a few minutes before someone came to help, Toni, an retired RN kept me stable until the paramedics got there, I was taken by ambulance to ER, I called my daughters that live here in the valley and they both came to keep me company and wait to see what the prognosis was,

Now for the TMI. If you don’t want the gory details you can stop reading.

Before

The bone is a full inch away from where it should be. I couldn’t have done a better job of breaking the Humerus if I tried.

They waited for the orthopedic doctor to look at the x-rays. The decision was made to keep me overnight and that night I would have to have surgery.

After

That’s a titanium rod and screws holding the bone together and the incision is glued together so that I can shower.

I’m doing fairly well considering.

Thanks for visiting

I can’t wait to get home to Mommy, although Brother Chris has been a great substitute.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

I decided that I no longer wanted to have a cowboy themed decor, which was throughout the whole coach. It was “cute”, but not really “me”. so I proceeded to Strip the wallpaper border off the walls in the living room, kitchen and the bathroom. Getting the border off wasn’t too difficult, however in the kitchen and the bathroom they used a strip of double adhesive under the wallpaper border that IS difficult to remove. So I will continue to work on removing that.

There is a smaller border in the bedroom near the ceiling that I can live with for a while longer. I believe that removing the wide, colorful border has resulted in a feeling of more openness.

That’s the pool behind the fence.

Sunday I finally made it to the pool. My intention was to do a few laps, however I don’t think that my arm is ready for that. I can do the motion, but will take it easy for a while to strengthen it. I spent about an hour just moving it in the water, doing different strokes in the water, but not out of the water , as that is the part that still hurts a little. It will take awhile and it won’t be too long before I can do laps again. Oh, by the way, the pool is heated and very comfortable. The hot tub is even better. That’s the reward for the exercise.

Monday and Tuesday, I was going to go to water aerobics, but was a bit sore and I still needed to figure out what I had in the way of art materials. I needed to get them all in one place so that I will have easy access. So on Monday I took everything out of the outside compartments one one side of the coach, sorted and reorganized. For the most part I now have all the art materials in one place. I will still need to go through things and purge a bit more, deciding what I won’t be using and find new homes for a few things.

There’s more large flat stuff behind what you can see here.

Tuesday, walked over to the Clubhouse and filled a couple of water jugs and I waited for a. UPS delivery. More on that in another post.

As the season here at the resort progresses, it gets busier. My Boss, Diana called me into her office yesterday to ask if I wouldn’t mind being switched to her Decor Team. I would be working Mon. thru Wed., however My hours would not be the same. They would be more flexible depending on the events. This week I will work the rest of the week (T & F) to finish this week’s hours, and then start the M/T/W schedule next week. Today I will have a split shift, decorating in the morning and then working the event tonight and breakdown tomorrow. I will probably like the decorating part and having varied duties. I will be working with some of the different workampers that I have met but not worked with, I will definitely be busy and more active, which will be a good thing.

All in all, it has been a busy week. Now with the holidays in the not too distant future, it will be even busier. Here at home, we are beginning to plan for Thanksgiving. I have reserved a room in the clubhouse for a family dinner instead of going to the one for the whole park.

I am really glad that I am here in AZ. My daughter, Sandi tells me that it is COLD in Ft. Worth. I really, really don’t like COLD. My wish for all of you out there in blog land is to have a wonderful, safe and comfortable holiday season.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Last week I worked Mon. thru Wed. Then because we had an influx of new workampers, they asked me if I minded changing my schedule to Wed. thru Fri. I ended up not working for 7 days in a row with no way to do anything or go anywhere away from the park.

Earlier in the week is busier and easier to learn what’s going on. Later in the week is a bit slower and not so chaotic. You can breathe easier, although the day drags a bit more. I think that I prefer the first part of the week, although it works better later in the week for when my grandson, Nick visits from Tucson.

One thing to say about living here at Good Life, if you’re bored, you have no one to blame but yourself. There is so much going on, from arts and crafts, billiards, cards, hiking, golf, swimming, dinners, dances, just to name a few of the activities. They keep adding more.

These boards have all the flyers posted for the varied activities and we are adding more all the time.

This is where I work. These windows get opened at 9:00 am. The one on the right (you can only see part of it) is for the Box Office where we sell all the ticketed events.

These two pictures are of the Patio next to the Pool where there are at least three Patio Parties a week with a band playing. It is very popular. You can imagine this area crowded with everyone dancing and enjoying the music.

Tonight, I stuck around to purchase a Box Dinner that they serve for Bingo (I don’t do Bingo). It was a very good pulled pork sandwich with chips, macaroni salad and brownie. I just took it home, because Angel was waiting to go out.

The rest of the evening I will just veg out and tomorrow I will continue going through my art materials and reorganizing my basement compartments.

I hope that you all have a great weekend.

Thanks for visiting

A couple of nights ago, Mom took me to the dog park but as soon as I did my business I just went and sat with her.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

This is what my site looks like just after the sun sets. I’m thinking about adding some more lights so that I can actually read a book after dark. The evening hours have been pleasant, although the morning hours have been quite chilly.

This has been the first week that I have worked my actual shift of 24 hours. There is a lot to learn because there is a lot happening. Since it is the beginning of the season there are a lot of clubs and classes starting up. Information taken and flyers and sign up sheets have to be made. I have updated books that contain information on what is going on locally and state wide and made phone calls to volunteers helping out with the monthly newsletter. This park uses residents that volunteer for all kinds of things in addition to Workampers. This year they have set up a separate window as a box office where we sell tickets for all the dances and the Cal Am Concert Series. Many of those events take place at this park as well all the other Cal Am Resorts.

Every Tuesday morning there is Coffee and Donuts. It is to let everyone know what is going on in the park during the week. Then that night was Movie Night. Volunteers run it and pop and bag and serve popcorn. The movie playing was Switch with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. It was an enjoyable light comedy. I didn’t get home until after 10 pm. As a Workamper, you are a resident and can take part in any of the activities at any of the Cal Am Properties that is outside of your work hours.

In addition to my regular work hours, I also volunteered to work the Halloween Dance last night from 7:00 until 10:00 pm. (During work I helped decorate the ballroom for the dance) One of the perks to working any of the events is that you can attend and not have to pay. Typically it’s a BYOB, although last night there was “creepy” snacks, bloody lady fingers, vampire teeth, pumpkin poop and zombie bones.

That’s Jan helping me with the snack table.

These are the bloody lady fingers.

Candy corn, Cheetos and pretzels fit the bill for the rest of the offerings.

One thing that I have to really be careful of here is to keep active. If I don’t, my weight is bound to start creeping up. Cal Am caters their events and if there are any leftovers they bring them into the break room.

These were taken early in the afternoon. We hung bats witches from the ceiling.

A good time was had by all.

Today is the actual holiday and I am off. I haven’t decided what to do yet. I may just rest. It has been a busy week at work. My daughters both have to work. One granddaughter is working and the other younger grandkids live about an hour away and will probably go “trick or treating” in their neighborhood.

I hope that you all have a fun Halloween, just watch out for those ghouls and goblins.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Sunday, all of the family members residing in the Phoenix area met at a Cracker Barrel centrally located. It had been quite a while since we were all together, especially with Ted’s presence. We had a great dinner and visit. Later we can get together again while I’m still in the area, sans Ted.

That’s 13 of us. My brother and his wife will be in town next month, so maybe we will do it again.

Monday Ted and I went out for breakfast and then had to go to several places before we located the fuel filler (not filter) hose to replace the one that leaked and Ted had to do a temporary fix when we were in Odessa, TX.

It was a dirty job and took longer than he anticipated, but got it finished before he had to leave for his flight back to San Francisco.

Tuesday, I just kicked back and settled in. I did take a walk over to the almost full service Post Office here in the park to get my PO box and called Escapees to schedule mail forwarding.

Wednesday was my first day on the job. I work 3 , 8 hour days per week for my site and HUs. This week it was W, Th and F, although my schedule will be M, Tu, and W. I will be working in the Activities Office and Box Office, answering questions and selling tickets for all the different activities, dinners, dances, concerts etc.. There are 9 Cal Am RV parks that we sell tickets for. One of the big names is Donny Osmond will be performing in February. The first two days, I was exhausted by the time I got home and Angel was so happy when I got home. It’s a big adjustment, working an 8 hour day when I haven’t done anything in the last 6 months.

It’s Saturday and I’m taking it easy. One of the things that I’m trying to find a car. It’s tougher than I thought, as I have never bought a car from a private party before. My daughter, Heidi will take me to look at one later today. Hopefully I will have transportation soon.